Palletforce has invested more than £1m in a new fleet of high tech ‘super’ forklift trucks. The company has upgraded its fleet of 40 forklifts to make operations at its £30m central hub even more efficient.

As the UK’s leading palletised distribution network, Palletforce prides itself on being industry leaders in new technologies. Last year it spent £500,000 developing specialist scanning and axle weighing technology that was fitted to each of its forklifts. The technology has now been fitted on its new fleet with additional upgrades including a touch screen and larger scanner memory.

Operations Director Carl Worgan said: "We are always looking at how we can use technology to drive improvements and increase efficiency. "The new weighing and scanning technology is something we created ourselves and has proved very successful. These new forklifts and scanner upgrades will further add to the speed and accuracy of our network."

The technology took Carl and his team two years to develop from scratch, and was the first of its kind in the UK.

It allows Palletforce to track and trace every pallet from the moment they enter its central hub in Burton-upon-Trent.

Each outlying Palletforce member barcodes its pallets before delivering them to the hub.

Once at the hub they are unloaded by the forklifts, which read the barcode and automatically weigh the pallet. A message then appears on the display screen on the forklifts, telling the driver which of the 96 loading bays to transfer the pallet to.

Palletforce’s central distribution hub was opened last year and acts as a nerve centre for the overnight delivery of palletised goods across the UK and Europe.